5 Things You Might Know – Or Might Not Know About Dominicans

In honor of Dominican Republic’s day of independence from Haitian rule – in February 27, 1844 – here is a list of 5 things you might know, or don’t know about Dominicans. But before I get to the list of my people, just know that Dominicans in their own country, in the United States and the rest of the world have offered so many amazing contributions that I am proud to be called a Dominican – even though my Spanglish is corrupting their Spanish like “checke-a-lo”.

1) Platanos We love our platanos so much that other nations call us Platanos. However, did you know that plantains are in the banana family that originates from Africa? And that plantains are only fruit you can’t eat raw (I mean you can, but why would you).

2) Weird Phrases We Dominicans like other nations (I’m sure), makeup and say weird phrases to each other. Here are just a few popular phrases like: “que lo que” (What is What), “dimelo loco” (tell me crazy), “que vaina” (what crap) and “Dique” to name a few. I Googled “Dique” and came up with too many meanings (but I still say it…smh). So yeah, we come up with weird phrases.

3) Clapping When The Flight Lands I don’t know when this started but Dominicans always clap when the airplane lands. The interesting thing about this is that everybody (and I mean every Dominican on the plane) will start clapping as soon as the plane’s wheels touches the runway.

4) Loud Talkers Yes, we are loud talkers and it gets louder as the conversation progresses. Some people may think we’re angry and yelling but we’re not angry… we’re just yelling for no good reason. 5) Habichuela Con Dulce Who the heck eats beans as a dessert? Dominicans! And we love it! Yes it makes you gassy. But we love it!